The Flint Area Association of Realtors just released the April 2008 housing sales data, and the numbers in April looked pretty good. Consider the following:
* There were 476 closed sales in April, up 6.49% from April 2007.
*The average sales price went from $86,687 in March to $91,885 in April, however, this number is still down 13.55% from April 2007 when the average sales price was $106,283.
*There have been 1640 closed sales year to date, up 8.11% from this same time last year.
*The average price year to date rose from $81,061.34 in March to $83,767.25 in April. The bad news here is that this number is still down 23.57% from the same time last year.
*The number of active listings is 6,766, down 8.37% from this time last year when it was 7,384.
That last number is the one that is the most encouraging. At a recent broker summit put on by the Michigan Association of Realtors, the guest speaker was Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research for the National Association of REALTORS®. One of the things that he noted was that the number of active listings had finally decreased here is Michigan. He said often times this is one of the first signs that the market has finally hit the bottom and may be on it’s way back up.
If I had a dollar for everytime somebody told me there was nothing fun to do in Genesee County, I would be a very rich man. You can now guarantee that the next time I hear a person utter those words, I will be directing them to the newly created website:
Thanks to funds provided from the Ruth Mott Foundation to pay a licensing fee for the software, this site now creates a one stop shop for everything regarding arts and entertainment in the county. A job well done! Please support their efforts!
If you haven’t taken a look at the foreclosure homes in Flint, Grand Blanc, Holly, Fenton, Linden, Swartz Creek, etc, you should call a professional Realtor at Piper Realty. We at Piper have all had the experience that is necessary when dealing with banks on these deals. We can give you a list of foreclosures that may be what you are looking for. Not all foreclosure homes are in need of major work. Banks have more foreclosure homes than ever and are forced to drop prices significantly to get rid of these properties. If you are looking at buying, the foreclosure properties are worth a look. Call today to have a list e-mailed to you, or set an appointment to come in for a hard copy. We can negotiate a fantastic deal on your new home. The Default Research company recently released information showing that the foreclosure numbers will fall through 2008. The link below is just another factor that leads us to believe that our market here in Michigan will stabilize in the near future.
No offense to Tom Brady and the Patriots, but this country needed the Giants to win on Sunday. According to the article below from the Inman News, there was a lot more at stake than just the Lombardi Trophy!
By Avram Goldman, President and CEO, Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate
Housing cycles are supposed to be characterized by long trend intervals — long periods of ups and downs. Today our markets are behaving much like the stock market — one week up and the next week down. My guess is that depending on the news home buyers ingest during the week, they tend to react much like investors in other asset classes. This makes it more challenging to predict where the market is headed.
As a kid I grew up next to railroad tracks, and one of my joys (to the chagrin of my parents) was hopping onto slow-moving trains. In order to know when trains were coming we would put our ears on the tracks and see if we could detect the faintest of sounds to know the train was on its way. It worked for the trains; let’s see if it can work for the housing market.
I delayed finishing this report over the weekend because it was time to go to the Super Bowl party. I did this deliberately so I could let the New England Patriots and New York Giants aid us in determining which way this market is moving. The reason is that the equity markets have had an uncanny direct correlation to the housing market or visa versa for the past 11-plus years. They are tied at the hip. Whoever wins the Super Bowl, meaning which conference and which team, we can look at past Super Bowls and see how the market has performed over the ensuing year to determine which way the wind is blowing.
Going all the way back to 1967 and measuring return, it has been more advantageous when the NFC wins. The S&P 500 has been positive more often than negative (86 percent versus 63 percent of the time) with above-average market performance in the Super Bowl year (NFC wins, +16.4 percent vs. AFC wins, +7.1 percent). Since the Giants won, we have a good thing going.
Now from a team perspective, when the Giants have won, the results have been more favorable than when the Patriots have won. In the Giants’ two previous wins (1987 and 1991), the S&P rallied 17.8 percent on average. Although, when the Patriots won (2002, 2004 and 2005) the market was -2.1 percent on average.
More impressive is when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl in 1986, and in 1997 the markets rallied 25.8 percent on average. Now we are talking. It is a good thing the Patriots lost last night because the last time we had a team go undefeated (the Miami Dolphins in the 1973 Super Bowl) it preceded the 1973-74 economic recession where the S&P 500 dropped 14.5 percent.
Finally, the two times that the Giants won the Super Bowl economic conditions were similar to our current situation. The 1987 win preceded the October stock market crash, and the 1991 victory was during the last major housing recession. The good news is that in both cases the markets moved higher (1987, +5.1 percent; 1991, +30.6 percent).*
Thank you Eli Manning and the N.Y. Giants’ defense team. Your win is the best news we have had since last summer. This is even more encouraging since the week of Jan. 21-27 saw home sales slow once again. The best thing that could be said is that open-house attendance was still brisk.
Now from what I have heard about this past week from agents (which will be discussed in my next report) is a possible pick-up in sales activity, which might have been a precursor to the Giants win.
Go Giants — Super Bowl champions! Now I wonder what this means for the presidential election. *Statistics provided by Deutsche Bank. Avram Goldman is president and CEO of Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate. Blog article reposted from Inman News.
We at Piper Realty are confident that it is a very good time to make your investment in real estate. While searching homes in the MLS this morning I came across some deals that are almost mind boggling. In fact I have made the decision to list my own home soon, in order to take advantage of both low interest rates and absolutely incredible deals. The fact that we have a lot of foreclosures in Genesee County obviously hurts home owners that cannot afford to compete. That being said, the investment opportunities that are being presented will hopefully help to launch an upswing in our market. The president of the National Association of Realtors recently did an interview with Fox that explains the future outlook of the real estate market. The short interview can be found here.
In my case I know I will not get back what I paid for my home. In fact I will loose a significant amount if I compare it only in that way. But if I look at the deal that I will get on the other side at the bottom of the market, I know I couldn’t buy at a better time. Remember to keep this relative outlook.
Your Magazines January edition includes a list of 40 individuals under the age of 40 that they have identified as the future leaders of Flint and Genesee County. We are proud to announce that Piper Realty’s Mark Piper was included in the impressive list. Others included are Ridgway White (Mott Foundation), Jeremy Piper (Attorney), Matt Cramer (Dee Cramer Inc.), Bobby Landaal (Landaal Packing Systems), Matt Norwood (Attorney), Dave Lervey (Siwek Construction), and Shannon Easter White (THA Architects) just to name a few. It is hard to scan this list and not get excited about the future of this area! Congratulations to all!
On Wednesday, a nationwide licensing system launched that’s intended to help state’s track mortgage brokers and lenders. Seven states are currently participating with thirty-one more states joining by the end of next year(Michigan included). Although this idea was first propsed in 2004, The House of Representatives incorporated it into HR 3915, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007.
The Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System or NMLS as it is being called, will become a single system for tracking and supervising mortgage brokers and lenders. This system will make it very difficult for brokers who reak havoc in one state to simply close thier doors and re-open in another state!
While I do wonder why it took thousands of people to get taken advantage of for this to happen, I guess it falls under the category of better late than never. Real estate salespeople and brokers are state licensed and you can always check the State of Michigan’s website to see if any enforcement actions have been taken against that licensee. I love the idea that consumers will now have the same ability when it comes to choosing a mortgage loan officer or lender. The NMLS says consumers should have access to the system by next year.
Feel free to check out the website of the newly created NMLS at:
This was recently e-mailed to me and while I don’t think the current foreclosure crisis is something to laugh about, I guess it is true when they say it will affect everyone! Also, with only 7 shopping days left, I thought we could all use a laugh!
In the wake of the annual pre-thanksgiving punch in the stomach that is the release of the CQ Press’s list of the most dangerous cities in America (for those keeping score at home, Detroit comes in at #1 and Flint comes in at #3), I feel it is neccessary to point out some of the people that are doing good in our community.
With little to no publicity, the staff at the Flint Area Association of Realtors are in the process of producing short, themed videos that help highlight some of the crown jewels of our area. Although they are still in the early stages, they have posted some of these videos on youtube so that when you search “Flint, Michigan” on youtube, you get some positive videos and not just high school kids doing drugs on camera (this used to come up in the search results for Flint, Michigan). Here is a link to one of their videos:
It is their hope that by producing these videos and posting them on local real estate web sites, it will help prospective buyers in this area focus on the positive things in our community, and not just the negative that we hear all the time. I think the staff at the Flint Area Association of Realtors should be commended for their work.
Welcome to the brand new Piper Realty Company blog. In the coming days and months, we hope to bring you the latest real estate related news and notes, as well as items that we think are important for the real estate consumer in the greater Genesee County area. In addition, it is our hope that this blog gives us a forum to hear from you. Please feel free to comment on anything and everything you see posted here. So off we go, this is going ot be fun! Sit back, relax, and enjoy!
All information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed and should be independently verified. All properties are subject to prior sale, change or withdrawal. Neither the listing broker(s) nor this office shall be responsible for any typographical errors, misinformation or misprints and shall be held totally harmless.
The information being provided on this website is for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
